Quote of the Week: July 1st, 2012

Whatever suffers is not part of me.  I have disowned the truth.  Now let me be as faithful in disowning falsity.  Whatever suffers is not part of me.  What grieves is not myself.  What is in pain is but illusion in my mind.  What dies was never living in reality, and did but mock the truth about myself.  Now I disown self-concepts, and deceits and lies about the holy Son of God.  Now am I ready to accept him back as God created him, and as he is.

ACIM Lesson 248,1

It is certainly no easy task to realize that what we have accepted as true for so long, is really false; that what we have valued as good and worthy is really worthless.  How difficult indeed it is for us to admit that we have been mistaken; as difficult I think, as it is for an addict to admit that he is addicted.  Yet it is exactly this admission that we must begin with if we are to ever awaken to the higher awareness of our true identity as children of God.  We are the unified children of God, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, and only in our unified togetherness are we the only begotten Son of God.  This is our true and single identity!  It is who we truly are, but we have denied this truth for millennia, believing ourselves instead to be frail mortal beings granted a little time on Earth, apparently to suffer, more or less, before we “die” and go to a place of either eternal joy or eternal suffering.  These are some of the false beliefs we hold as true about ourselves, without considering that such beliefs contradict what we also believe about the nature of God.   


We believe God to be kind, loving, and forgiving, but how could a loving God condemn His children to suffering either now or in the hereafter?  Certainly such actions cannot be reconciled as being kind, loving or forgiving?  Clearly there is a misunderstanding either in our beliefs about ourselves, or in our belief about God.  Either: we cannot really suffer, even though we appear to be, or if we really do suffer, then our belief that God is kind, loving and forgiving is inaccurate, for only one of these can be true.  It would be immensely difficult for us to conceive of a non-loving God, for to do so is to believe that our essential nature, like God’s is unloving at best and “evil” at worst.  Certainly we are capable of both loving and unloving thoughts and actions, but the more important question is which of these is our essential nature.  


If we believe our essential nature to be unloving, then there is no real hope for peace, joy and everlasting life either here or in the hereafter, for with such a nature, self destruction would be our destiny.  Yet, if we believe our essential nature to be loving, then we can reason that our unloving actions may be the result of temporary lapses or forgetfulness of our true nature in the face of apparently difficult or extenuating circumstances; or perhaps they are the result of misperceptions that led us into believing that we are something other that what we really are, thereby causing us to behave in ways that we would not otherwise behave.  But whatever the reasoning, hope remains alive if our essential nature is loving.  Furthermore, if love is our essential nature, then so is God’s, and even if we in our confusion about who we really are, fail to live up to our true potential, at least we can depend on our ultimate trump card—the almighty love, wisdom and power of our Creator to save us even from our imagined selves.  This trump card does not merely keep alive the hope that we have a chance at redemption and therefore salvation, it positively guarantees it!  All that is needed for this salvation is a simple change of mind.  Let us begin to believe that we are essentially loving beings, and with all our resolve, let us begin to bring our actions into accord with this belief.  Let us change from thinking we are “sinners” to the truth that we are the holy children of God.


It is conceptually simple, but indeed, no easy trick to reverse false but long-held and well grounded beliefs, such as the belief that we are born “sinners” and so must suffer, sacrifice, and ultimately die to pay for our “sins.”  The opposite of this archaic mind set is the belief that we, like God, are inherently perfect, loving, free, and essentially spirit as opposed to flesh.  We have great difficulty accepting the idea of an unkind, unloving God, but it’s even more difficult for us to accept the idea that pain and suffering is an illusion, for they seems so apparently true to our senses.  There are two ways to bring about this dramatic change of mind.  Either move in the direction of God, or move away from the idea that pain and suffering is real.  The former is certainly easier for the faithful and trustful who can put their faith and trust in what they know and not in what they perceive.  However, the latter is somewhat easier to grasp since pain and suffering are common experiences we all seek to avoid.


It certainly seems apparent that everyone suffers, some more so than others, and that eventually everyone “dies,” but this information comes to us only from the five witnesses (our senses), lauded but undependable, for they are know to give us false and deceiving information.  Clearly it would be unwise to accept their testimonies and conclusions prima facie*.  We know our ears hear only so much, a dog's hearing and sense of smell are orders of magnitude more sensitive than humans; our eyes see only a tiny portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, and our senses of touch and taste are equally limited.  It would therefore be both foolish and unwise to place our complete trust in witnesses of this caliber.  Unwise because given the limitations of the five witnesses in question, it would be more prudent to at least verify and validate their information with those from other sources.  And it would certainly be foolish to believe these five witnesses since they testify in favor of the very beliefs we are questioning.  Their testimony say that pain and suffering are real, so we must question this testimony if we are to gain confidence in the opposite belief that pain an suffering are but illusions.


If we posit that we do not suffer, then God would be kind and life would be perfect--the least that can be expected of a perfect (i.e. all knowing, all powerful, all present) God.  Accepting our preposition that we indeed do not suffer, how do we then reconcile this with the prima-facie testimony of the five to the contrary.  By recognizing the limitations of the five witnesses, we begin to loosen the grip that belief in their testimonies have on our ability to seek and know the truth about who we really are.  Furthermore, by recognizing that our belief in their shaky testimonies is the very foundation for our experience of who we believe ourselves to be, we begin to step away from these beliefs, and grow in confidence that we can indeed “prove” that pain and suffering are illusions.  


The next thing we must recognize is that the five work for the “dream-maker,” that part of our collective mind that created (for good reason) the make-believe world that we experience in our everyday waking consciousness—the make-believe world that they testify for and which deceives us into holding false and limited beliefs about ourselves.  The dream-maker, also known as the Ego is our ability to create dreams, fantasies, alternate realities, and scenarios.  It creates all the dreams we experience when we sleep, and all our wishes and desires of how things could be or should be when we are awake.  We can also conceptualize the dream-maker as our left brain which dissects and analyzes as opposed to our right brain, which unifies and harmonizes.  Simply stated, the dream-maker is that part of our mind that wishes us to be other than the way God created us to be.  Yes, believe it or not, the dream-maker created the illusion that we are human, something other than Spirit (the single unified child) that God created perfect.  The dream-maker (our collective ego) made this dream world we think we now live in, along with the five who bear false witness to us that this make-believe world is the real world God created.  And how do we know this make-believe world was not the world God created?  We know this simply because it is not perfect!  Pain and suffering, uncertainty and limitation, bondage and death cannot be a part of the world that a perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present God would create. 


Knowing the inherent weakness of the five and the fact that they work for the dream-maker weakens our faith in their testimonies, but for complete certainty, we still need to weigh their testimony against information from an outside source, some entity outside the system of the dream-maker.  The characteristics of this outside source naturally cannot be in accordance with the make-believe world of form and function of the dream.  Indeed this outside source cannot be “sensed” at all for this is the primary testament of truth for those living in the dream world, and we have already established that perceived or sensed testimony cannot be entirely trusted. But even though this outside source cannot be sensed, we can still gain access to it through knowledge.  It cannot be sensed, but it can only be known. 

“To know is to be certain.  Uncertainty means that you do not know.  

Knowledge is power because it is certain, and certainty is strength.  ...  True perception is the basis for knowledge, but knowing is the affirmation of truth and beyond all perceptions.”

A  Course in Miracles (ACIM) Chapter3, III, 1

The Technique

So then, the million-dollar question is:  “How can we KNOW this outside source which can reveal to us the truth about our essential nature?”  The answer, in a word, is stillness!  As expounded by the wise through the ages, and by religious and philosophical texts from every tradition, the essential teaching is:  “Be still and know that I am God.”  This is the technique for knowing the field of the Absolute, the field of Truth beyond duality, the field that lies outside the relative field of our perceptions and proofs.  It is a simple, natural, effortless, effective technique for bringing the awareness away from the field of perceptions and into the purity of knowledge.  Let’s investigate this technique more closely.


“Be Still and know that I am God” consists of two parts “being still” and “knowing.”  Becoming still is simply a process of stepping down the level of activity in which we are currently engaged.  As a runner gradually slows his pace, he finally comes to a standstill, so whatever the level of activity, if we take it down a notch, we are becoming more still, more silent, more relaxed, more peaceful.  This is the beginning of stillness.

Applying the Technique

But don’t just stop there, become even more still, sit comfortably, or lie down and close the eyes, thereby shutting off all external visual distractions.  Feel your muscles, breathing and heartbeat relaxing.  Become even more still by lightly bringing the attention to your breath, observing it and allowing it to be just as it is; not controlling or manipulating it, but simply observing it.  Notice how fast or slow it seems; how deep or shallow; how smooth or agitated, which nostril is dominant and which subordinate, etc.  


Simply observe, for just a minute; be an observer, a witness to whatever is present; noticing it but allowing it to be just as it is; gently bringing the attention back to the breath whenever it becomes distracted or wanders off.  Do this for no more than one minute.  Then slowly open the eyes and allow yourself to come back to your normal perceptions.  Evaluate how you feel now, relative to how you felt before doing this one-minute stillness technique.  Do you fell more relaxed, rested and refreshed, more clear-headed, more energized?  If so, you’ve just taken your first steps into the field of pure knowledge.  Not yet fully established in that awareness, but definitely on the path.  Just as when approaching the ocean, we begin to notice a change in the quality of the air, in the sounds and smells, and more subtly in how we feel emotionally, etc.  Just so, as we approach the field of pure knowledge, we become aware of a deeper level of stillness, silence, and peacefulness.


In this way, we gradually leave the field of sensory perceptions, the relative world of the dream-maker, and begin to enter i.e. become aware of the absolute world of our Creator.  As we go deeper into this field we become more free from duality, more independent of possessions, more firmly grounded in purity, and more possessed of our (Higher) Self—the absolute Self created by our omniscient and omnipotent Creator, as opposed to the relative ego-self that we created and normally experience. 

The **Vedas concern is with the three gunas.  Be without the three gunas, O Arjuna, freed from duality, ever firm in purity, independent of possessions, possessed of the Self. 

Bhagavad-Gita II,45

In this field of the Absolute, the field of our Creator, the field of Truth, the true nature of our identity dawns in our awareness.  Like one awakening from a dream, we remember who we really are, where we are and why we are; we know immediately that we were only experiencing a dream, but now that we are awake, we have no more need of dreams.  Now we know our reality as immortal beings, unified with each other and with our Creator.  But while we yet languish in the falsity of our true nature, we can hasten the day of remembering by practicing this technique given in the formula:  “Be still and know that I am God.”  

So, in time, and with practice, we grow in confidence of our true nature as the eternally holy Son of God.  And with this confidence we can now realize the truth that:  “Whatever suffers is not part of me.  What grieves is not myself.  What is in pain is but illusion in my mind.  What dies was never living in reality, and did but mock the truth about myself.  Now I disown self-concepts, and deceits and lies about the holy Son of God.”


*prima facie denotes evidence that – unless rebutted – would be sufficient to prove a particular proposition or fact, but just because a matter appears to be evident from a certain presentation of the facts it does not follow that that matter has any truthful validity.  Wiki "prima facie" for more info.

**The Vedas, the collected wisdom of the ages, is concerned with the world of form and function, the world of duality and change, the world under the ever shifting influence of the three aspects, forces, or qualities of creation:  Rajo-guna (the spur or motive for creation,) sattva-guna (the evolution or momentum of creation,) and tamo-guna (the dissolution or devolution of the current level of creation, which sets the basis for next level.)

Quote of the Week

Your Grace Is Given Me.  I Claim It Now.   It is a new and holy day today, for we receive what has been given us.  Our faith lies in the Giver, not our own acceptance.  We acknowledge our mistakes, but He to Whom all error is unknown is yet the One Who answers our mistakes by giving us the means to lay them down, and rise to Him in gratitude and love.

ACIM Lesson 168,5

God being who He is has given us everything; everything!  While this seems to be an outrageous statement, it is absolutely True and logically consistent.  Being unlimited, infinite and eternal, His gifts must share these characteristics, just as a millionere or a “poor” man gives gifts that reflect the character of their finincial status.  If we feel any lack, it must be because we have not fully received all that He has given us, for His gifts and His giving is complete, so the onus lies only on us and our ability to receive what has already and eternally been given. 

 When we understand this, the only question that remains is:  “How can we better receive the gift of God’s grace?”  The answer is to place our faith “in the Giver, not our own acceptance.”  Our only mistake is that we believe ourselves to be separate from God, and this leads in turn to a sense of lack which opens the possibility that we may be unable to fulfill all our desires.  This fear of failure leads us to place (or more accurately to misplace) our faith in hording and defenses instead of trusting in God.  Misplaced trust cause us to lean more on judgments as the means to fulfill our desires, to be safe, and to succeed in our endeavors.  But the use of judgment comes with a price, that being the fear that we too will be judged, which in turn leads to condemnation, and a sense of superiority among those who seem to have better judgment or a better position from which to judge.  

The single solution to all this is simply to know God.  Knowing God allows us to trust God and trust in His love for us.  Trusting God allows us to love God.  Loving God allows us to embrace God.  Embracing God allows us to use the gift of God’s grace.  And by using God’s grace, we are helping ourselves to more of God, and this is how we can most effectively thank God.  Thankfulness puts us into a state of grattitude in which we are appreciating all that we have been given, and therefore all that we are.  This is the state of being that we want to be in at all times, for it is from the state of being that we can experience all that we truly are.  

These steps* also work in reverse:  Being thankful engenders helpfulness, which in turn engenders the use of God’s gifts to us.  Using God’s gifts means that we are using God to help us help ourselves.  If we are using God’s gifts, we are embracing God.  If we are embracing God then we are certainly loving God, and if we are loving God, then we are knowing God for sure.  This is how we claim and therefore receive God’s gifts.

* For more information about these steps, see:  Friendship with God by Neal Donald Walsh.

Quote of the Week: November 13th, 2011

Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought—you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself.  Whatever evil you may think you did, you are as God created you.  Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is unchanged.  Creation is eternal and unalterable.  Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.  You are and will forever be exactly as you were created.  Light and joy and peace abide in you because God put them there.

ACIM Lesson 93,7

 Let us examine the implications of the thought—"you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself."  Firstly, we must realize that God is the foundation of this thought; if we understand God’s nature to be perfection, then this thought will yield implications based on perfection.  If we take God’s nature to be something other than perfect, then it will yield implications based on imperfection.  Clearly the concept of perfection is absolute in nature; you cannot be a little bit perfect, or even mostly perfect; you are either completely perfect or imperfect.  Furthermore perfection is a permanent state of being, for once having been achieved it cannot be lost, changed or altered in any way whatsoever, for if it could be changed then it was not perfect to begin with, for changeability implies that there is room for either improvement or loss, while unchangeability implies eternity for it is unaffected by time, space and form.  Water (H2O) for example, has three common forms: liquid, solid, and vapor, but even though these forms change in accordance with the temperature, the essential nature of the elements Hydrogen and Oxygen remain constant, and therefore unchangeable relative to temperature.  Similarly, God’s nature which is our essential nature is unchangeable with respect to all changes in time, space or causation.

If we take God’s nature to be imperfect, the implications are huge:  our salvation becomes questionable, for there would be some chance for error, miscalculation, luck, or favor.  If God is imperfect, it means that His love and His word holds no guarantee, and cannot be fully depended on—it may work out or it may not but we cannot be certain.  If God be imperfect it means that God can fail to have things be as He wills it be; it means that ‘sin’ exists and sinners have an opportunity of entering Heaven, and the king of sin has a chance of “winning” against the “All-mighty” will of God, in which case we must then describe God’s will as “almost-mighty.”  

Ask yourself honestly, can this be the true nature of God?  Can this possibly be what we truly believe in our hearts about God?  In our minds and senses when we feel alone, lost, or confused, perhaps, but not in our hearts, where God willed that we forget Him not.  His is the only source of power that exists and if we have any power at all, it comes to us through Him and Him alone; this is the little light within our hearts, the small but insuperable voice through which He communicates to us; the one part of our dream that is real and perfect, and which cannot be covered over by the veil of ignorance and denial that blinds our mind and senses to His presence within us.  Let the key to awakening to this truth be these words continually uttered from our lips so that we may always remember who we really are:
 

“Let me remember I am one with God.”  

Yes, this is Truth eternal, and therefore the perfect Truth.  God being Almighty, has the power to do His will and therefore cannot fail in what He wills.  His will is not open to question, far less to chance, and is farther still from being an option.   Being All-mighty means that there is no will that can oppose His, no seeming or potential error that cannot be anticipated and thereby corrected before it occurs, and nothing that is not in accord with His divine will can occur.  

Yes, God is perfection, and as such He is unchangeable, and therefore eternal.  All that He creates also must be perfect, otherwise He Himself would not be perfect.  So to guarantee the perfection of His creations, He made them exactly like Himself and joined with them in eternal oneness.  Just as every single piece of a holographic image contains the whole image, just so are we the little individual pieces that contain the hologram of God, and so the logic goes:  If God be perfect and we, His creation, is an inseparable part of Him, then we too must be perfect, unalterable, and eternal.  Just as we are able to dress up in various costumes and play certain character roles, just so, all that we may think and do does not change the essential nature of who we are--one with God.  The implications of this truth is that ‘sin’ is unreal, like a nightmare or an illusion perceived by our senses, but has no reality and therefore no effect of its own.  God is perfect, therefore sin cannot exist.  God is perfect, therefore His will, His world, and His love are forever true, and therefore guaranteed!  Accepting this truth is all we need for our salvation.

Quote of the Week:  September 4th, 2011

 

My Happiness and My Function are One:  The ego does constant battle with the Holy Spirit on the fundamental question of what your function is.  So does it do constant battle with the Holy Spirit about what your happiness is.  It is not a two-way battle.  The ego attacks and the Holy Spirit does not respond.  He knows what your function is.  He knows that it is your happiness.

Acim Lesson 66,2

Knowing one’s true Self or identity is the basis for knowing one’s true function.  Since God is the soul source of our identity, and our function is based on our identity, it follows that God is also the sole source of our function, and furthermore, both our identity and function must be in accordance with what God is.  So what is God’s nature, essence, or character?  We have conceptualized the nature of God as being that of perfect Love, Joy, Peace, Freedom, etc.  We can think of an infinite number of essential attributes, but for brevity, we can condense all other attributes of God into some variant of these.  Now since the source, course, and goal of all these attributes is happiness, and by extension we can conclude the same for any other attribute, I posit that happiness is what God must be in His essential nature.

What God gives must be based on what God is.  We can then conclude that happiness is all that God gives, and can give, and since God created us, happiness must  therefore be our essential nature also.  It would be inconceivable for God to give anything not in accord with what He is, i.e., happiness, for it would contradict his essential nature.  God cannot, for instance, give evil, so, following our logic, we can define evil as anything that is not happiness.  Furthermore, if God could give us anything other than happiness, it follow that He would be evil.  It becomes critically important that we understand the logic here, for to believe that God could or would give us anything other than happiness directly contradicts our notions of God as happiness.  This logic is also verified in our everyday experience where we observe that animals and plants produce offspring, fruit and seed in accord with what they are, in accord with their nature; its in the DNA you might say. 
 
The nature of anything must be in accord with the nature of its source.  Since God is the single source of all that is, and God is happiness, it follows that the nature of the holy children of God, as well as all that exists in creation, must also be happiness.  This bring us to a huge revelation, so hold on to you seats:  If the holy children of God and all else that exists in creation are essentially happiness, appearances notwithstanding, it must mean that, we the children of God must be God’s only creation*; we are the creation; we are the world; we and the world are one!  Woooohooo, ponder that for awhile!  

To know that our true nature, the true nature of God, and the true nature of all that exists is one and the same, is the basis from which we can look past the apparent diversity and see the unity that we are.  We differ only in our awareness of this truth, and superficially in appearance; we seem to be many, but we are really one.  To borrow a colorful phrase, “a pig with lipstick is still a pig!”  Knowing that our true nature is happiness gives us clarity about our function, and what else could be the function of happiness but to be happy!  Our single function then, is simply to be ourselves, to be what we already are, by knowing, remembering, and being conscious of our true nature:  ‘My happiness and my function are one.’  To remember this is to remember who we really are, and remembering who we really are is the key to fulfilling our function. 
 
The converse of the truth that happiness is both our essential nature and our function is also true, which means that whenever we don’t feel happy, then we are not fulfilling our God-given function.  Happiness is our essential nature so we can never be completely without some joy**; we cannot ever cease to be who we really are.  Happiness is the scale on which we exist, and while we cannot choose to be off this scale, we can choose to be anywhere we wish along it, from very little happiness at the low end, to estatic joy and eternal bliss at the high end.  This is our freedom and our function, so choose wisely the degree of happiness you wish to experience.

* If A = B and B = C, then A = C, or if the children of God is happiness and all else in creation is happiness, then the children of God and all else in creation must be the same single creation.

** The Taittiriya Upanishad 3.6.1 declares that “Out of bliss these being are born; In bliss they are sustained, and to Bliss they go and merge again.”

Quote of the Week: August 14th, 2011

God Goes With Me Wherever I Go:   Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you and out into the world.  It will cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to them.

ACIM Lesson 41,3

It is still true even though it has become clichéd to say things like “the kingdom of Heaven is within you,” “God goes with me wherever I go,” or “God is the strength in which I trust,”  But think of the immense implications these statements express.  If it is true that the all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present Creator is always with you, how can ignorance, sorrow, pain, fear and loss really exist?  Certainly these things are not of the Creator, and if He is with us then they cannot really exist for us either.  And that is just a consideration of the negative side of the equation.  On the positive side, the implications are even more immense, for it means that we have access to the divine characteristics of the Creator, such as infinite peace, wisdom, and power.  What problem or situation can remain when addressed from this level of knowing, and what blind illusion can hide in the light of such reality?  From this level of knowing, all things become possible for us, for this knowing not only brings all apparent problems to complete resolution and peace, but endows us with the supreme knowledge that in reality there are no problems.  This supreme knowing rests on the knowledge of our true identity as children of God, i.e., godchildren, i.e., gods, which thereby grants us the ability and confidence to perform miracles.  We can perform miracles even now for it is our birthright and inheritance, and because the power of the Creator is with us always, but presently, we lack the deep faith of this supreme knowing that would give us the confidence to actually do what we are innately capable of. 

Our apparent suffering is due to the ignorance of our true identity; to our disbelief and faithlessness in the truth that we are children of God; and to the learned belief that our projected sense illusions are real.  Generation after generation through the long corridors of time have we suffered in ignorance of our true identity, so captivated are we still by our self-created sense illusions.  We believe these illusions to be real because we made them, and because each generation learned to believe in them from the previous generation.  This is how the lie that we are bodies, without wisdom, vulnerable, and mortal is perpetuated.  But now, let us deny that lie, let us begin to embrace the glorious truth that we are as God created us, perfect, spirit, and free.  Let us embrace this, not in an egotistic way, but through the loving understanding that given our lineage, we can be nothing less.  And by acknowledging this truth, also embrace the responsibility to express it all that we think say and do.  

Let us re-discover the perfection so long covered and hidden deep within us and radiate it out into the world, for only that perfection will permanently “...cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to them.”   “Yes, yes,” you may say in protest “...but it took us generations to believe as we believe now, would it not take a similar amount of time to turn our belief around?”  
Perhaps it could, but given who we really are, and given our willingness (our ability to will what we will,) and given the fact that it matters not how long the darkness has lasted, it is immediately removed by the first ray of light and love and truth; given that, it need not be a long time.  

Let us gradually and deliberately open the door to the light of perfection within us, through our daily practice of opening our awareness to it, until the dawning of the light of knowledge grows into the full sunshine of the divine grace of eternal peace.   It begins by spending a few minutes away from the cares of the world, a few minutes opening our awareness to the deep unfathomable peace within us; be still a few minutes each day; be still and you will come to know the divine presence within you.

Quote of the Week: July 24th, 2011

There Is Nothing My Holiness Cannot Do:  If you are holy, so is everything God created.  You are holy because all things He created are holy.  And all things He created are holy because you are.

ACIM Lesson 38,3

If we really knew ourselves to be the holy children of God, then we would know that all wisdom and all power belong to us.  If our belief that we are the holy children of God, were the size of a mustard seed, we would be able to move mountains.  Since this is not the level of power we typically demonstrate, clearly our belief that we are the holy children of God is much smaller than the size of a mustard seed.  Indeed we hardly believe it at all, yet we can still move mountains, granted though, it does take great effort, time, and energy, just because of our tiny wisdom and belief.  But such is the power of God that can accomplish anything, for it is inherent in us and can never fully leave us even when our belief in it is the size of a subatomic particle.  

So how can we increase the size of our belief?  The story of the prodigal son can perhaps provide us with some insights and comfort.  It is the story of a child who having received the wealth of his father left home to try making a life and name for himself, and who after some time found himself destitute.  Sounds familiar doesn’t it?  Concluding that his situation would be far better if he lived as a servant in his father's house, he returned home only to find his father surprisingly neither angry nor disappointed, but instead greatly rejoicing in his return, and lavishly bestowing on him all the love, honor, and appreciation of one who had accomplished great things.  He was surprised by his father’s reaction because he thought himself a failure, guilty of doing wrong, foolish or “sinful” things, and was therefore unworthy of such generous praise.  His father’s reaction came from the joy he felt at the return of his son, similar to the joy one feels when something of great value that was lost is found again.  The son did not realize that he himself was his father’s greatest treasure, and the return of that treasure was the cause of his father’s joyful reaction.  

This story offers us two important insights:  the first is in recognizing that we are the children of God, our Creator, and as such we inherit our characteristics and value, our genes if you will, from Him.  Being perfect, God created "His only begotten son" perfect and one.  We the children of God are His only begotten, perfectly unified son-ship.  We are therefore not merely valuable to our Creator, we are His most valuable treasure because we are His only treasure, made in His image and likeness.  Just as all children share the basic characteristics of their parents, even though each child expresses them differently, we the children of God express His basic characteristics in unique and individual ways, but remain unified because of our common source.  Even when we fail to appreciate our value, it is not lost for it is inherent.  Similar to the value of a hundred dollar bill that we have misplaced, whose value is not affected when we find it again, even if we found it is crumpled, worn or dirty.  We rejoice because its inherent value is unaffected.   Our inherent value as children of God comes not from what we think or say or do, but from who we are, and therefore can never be lost, diminished, tarnished or changed in any way.  The eyes of our Father looks joyously upon us at all times and rejoices when we return to Him.  

The second, and more important insight is in recognizing the true nature of our Creator as the “ALL-That-Is", the Alpha and the Omega, the omnipresent One who pervades all existence like wetness pervades water, and like space pervades all that we perceive.  Because God is omnipresent, we are not now, nor can we ever be separate form Him, for there is nothing that exists that can be outside or apart from that One Thing which is Everything.  Being in everything, He exists in us and we in Him, as One, whole, and therefore holy.  Because we are an inherent part of Him, we too are holy.  We are and remain as God created us, holy, spirit, perfect, and free!  Our existence, our very being-ness, resides in God, at-one with Him, and therefore at-one with everything that exists.  

Regardless of what we may think we are (human, vulnerable, separate, etc.,) God knows us to be what He is, as part of His Self, forever established and residing in His Beingness.  His ubiquitous presence is His power and His power is His ubiquitous presence.  As His creation, this is who we, the holy children of God, really are, and because ‘...there is nothing the power of God cannot do,’ there is nothing we cannot do.  But to demonstrated this we must re-cognize and re-member ourselves as the holy, all-powerful children who are forever at-one with their holy, all-powerful Creator.  Religion by definition is that which returns us to our source, so anything that accomplishes this re-turn is by definition a religion.  Like the wise prodigal son, let us make our religion be to turn away from separation and suffering, and re-turn to joyful oneness with our Father, for only in God can we be truly free, truly valued, and truly appreciated.  

The beautiful simplicity of this religion or re-turn is that we can turn no where else, for God is everywhere, in everyone and as everyone, without exception.  But our re-turn is simpler even than this for we can never really turn-away from ubiquity in the first place, so our re-turn is already accomplished; wherever we turn God is already there, patiently awaiting our re-cognition of Him.  Our less-than-simple task is only to re-cognize Him in each other and in ourselves.  He is everywhere, and appears in everything as individual, apparently separate beings.  Re-cognizing the true nature of everyone and everything as a holy child of God, as God dressed in various clever disguises, we will re-cognize God in ourselves and re-member our oneness with each other and with our Creator.   There is an ancient, sacred word that can help us do this: 

Namaste!

(the God in me re-cognizes the God in you, and in this recognition, we are One.)

Say this word to everyone and everything, silently or out loud, to help dispel the illusion of separation, and help us re-member the true nature of our oneness with all that we perceive.  Say this word to re-mind you of who you really are, and of who everyone and everything is -- one with God.

 

Quote of the Week: July 17th, 2011

I Do Not Know What Anything Is For:  Purpose is meaning.  Today’s idea explains why nothing you see means anything.  You do not know what it is for.  Therefore, it is meaningless to you.  Everything is for your own best interest.  That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means.  It is in recognizing this that your goals become unified.  It is in recognizing this that what you see is given meaning.

ACIM Lesson25,1

Purpose gives meaning to things.  Without purpose we do not really know what something means.  It is the purpose we have for something that defines its meaning, and without a purpose it is meaningless to us.  A chair, for example, is used for sitting; that is its use, but without a purpose for sitting, the use of the chair is rendered meaningless to us.  To loose purpose therefore is to loose meaning.  Our purpose is what gives to or removes meaning from all that is in our environment, and also for our very lives.   Without purpose therefore, life itself becomes meaningless to us, and only when purpose is established, does life regain its meaning.  

It is critical then that we understanding our purpose.  Meaning is based on purpose, which in turn is based on self-identification, i.e. who I am or more importantly, who I think I am.  If I identify my self as an ego, then that ego becomes the basis for understanding my purpose, which in turn gives meaning to my life and to all that is in the environment around me.  Similarly, if I see myself as a holy child of God, created in the image and likeness of my Creator, blessed and perfect, then it is this identification that becomes the basis for understanding my purpose and the meaning of life for me.  

As a holy child of God, ‘Everything is for your own best interest.  That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means.’   This is how we give meaning to everything, and it is also why things have different meaning to different people.  The meaning we assign to something speaks volumes about who we think we are.  And the more meaning or importance we give to something, the more clearly it identifies us.  Every choice and decision we make is a statement about who we think we are.  Our self-identiy is so important to us that we go out of our way to announce it to everyone and everything around us, in subtle and not so subtle ways, from our style of dress, the car we choose to drive, the house and neighbourhood we live in the people and parties we associate with, the career we persue, etc.  

The lesson here is that since our self identity is reflected in everything we think, say and do, it is worth some time and energy to identify more with who we really are, as opposed to who we think we are--our true divine Self, as opposed to our made-up ego self.  We are Spirit, created in the image and likeness of our Creator, and our spirit-ness cannot ever be changed or diminished in any way, even while we are having this physical experience of being in bodies.  So while we are here in bodies, it would be in our best interest to identify with our spirit-ness, for then we will be identifying with what is permanent, powerful, and perfect.  Our divine identification shines the light of divine wisdom on our purpose, which in turn brightens the meaning of life for us.